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her eyes she could see a carpet of red, yellow and white wildflowers stretched out before her. Rave’s right arm hung loosely across her side. She could feel his volkaane heat seeping into her body. She knew he was probably awake and watching her—he required very little real sleep, but had always been happy to lie beside her while she slept, no matter how many hours it was.
    She rolled over to face him. As she had expected, his beautiful brown eyes were open and looking at her. He was smiling. She smiled back—god he was handsome.
    “Good morning, sweetheart,” he said.
    He must have seen something in her face, because his smile quickly vanished and his eyes narrowed.
    “What’s wrong, Leesa?”
    She shook her head and smiled. “Nothing’s wrong, my love. Just different.”
    Rave still looked concerned. “What is it?”
    Leesa didn’t know any other way to tell him other than to come right out and say it, so that’s what she did.
    “I’m pregnant.”
    Rave’s surprise was evident on his face. “Pregnant? How is that possible?”
    “What do you mean, how is that possible?” Leesa grinned at him. “Have you forgotten last night already, my studly husband?”
    From the look on Rave’s face, Leesa bet that if his skin wasn’t so bronze, she would have been able to see him blushing.
    “I know how the process works,” he said, smiling. “What I meant is, how could you know so soon? It’s been less than twelve hours. That’s not the way it usually works for you humans, is it?”
    “Well, I’ve never been pregnant before, but, no, I don’t think so. It usually takes awhile before we know. A missed period, or some nausea.”
    Rave’s look of concern returned. “Are you feeling nauseous? It’s too soon for that, right?”
    “Yes, it’s too soon, and no, I feel fine.”
    “Maybe it’s a wizard thing, then,” Rave suggested. “Maybe your magic is telling you.”
    “Maybe. But whatever it is, I know, without a doubt that I’m carrying our child inside me.” Leesa took Rave’s wrist and placed his hand on her bare stomach. “I can feel it in here. Something warm, a glow almost. I’m guessing that volkaane babies are probably extra warm.”
    Rave smiled again. “I could ask some of the women, but I don’t think they’d know. We’re all pretty much the same temperature, so I doubt they feel any change. You’ve gotten me to thinking, though.”
    “About what?”
    “We probably should have talked about this last night, but as you may have noticed, I was a bit distracted.”
    “No more than me,” Leesa replied, smiling.
    “We don’t know the possible ramifications of interbreeding between volkaanes and humans,” Rave continued. “Or even if it’s possible.”
    Leesa pressed Rave’s hand more firmly against her belly. “It’s possible, all right. I told you, I’m pregnant. But I get your point. We’d better learn all we can, so we can be prepared.”
    “I think Balin is probably the best place to start. He knows more volkaane history than anyone I know, plus he loves to study the archives. Maybe he’ll know if anything like this has happened before.” Rave paused for a moment. “But if he knew of any real danger, I’m certain he would have warned us, at the wedding, at least.”
    “Let’s hope so.” Leesa replied. Rave’s earlier comment about her wizard powers gave rise to another thought. “There’s the added complication of my magic, too. But there’s no one we can ask about that.” Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, she wished Dominic was still here with them. “So we’ll start with Balin. Let’s go see him this morning.”
    Rave leaned forward and tenderly kissed Leesa’s forehead. “You got it.”
    “One more thing,” Leesa said. “I don’t want to tell anyone else until we know more. Not even my mom. I don’t want to worry her.”
    Rave nodded. “I understand. We can go see Balin right now if you want.”
    “I do. But I think maybe